Mr Donald Trump defended his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin at a forum here focused on national security issues, even suggesting that Mr Putin is more worthy of his praise than President Barack Obama.
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Mike Pence, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, told CNN it was “inarguable” that Putin had been a stronger leader of Russian Federation than Obama had been in the United states.
“Vladimir Putin is a thug, a dictator, an autocratic ruler who has his opposition killed in the streets in Russian Federation”, the South Carolina Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I never met Putin”, Trump said, responding to the Democratic National Committee hack and charges the Russians were trying to meddle in US elections.
When asked how he would de-escalate tensions between the United States and Russian Federation if he’s elected to the White House, Trump said he’d “have a very good relationship with many foreign leaders”, including Putin.
Trump is the GOP nominee “because he won our nomination fair and square”, Ryan said, repeating his past remarks on Trump.
Ryan also said he refuses to be an election year pundit, answering every one of Donald Trump’s miscues and said he would rather focus on other things.
Donald Trump unleashed a firestorm of criticism from liberals, conservatives and those in between when he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Pence on Thursday clarified that Trump was not advocating for a dictatorship like Putin’s. The call for the attacks was done during a news conference. In 2007, Trump said Putin was going a “great job” and in 2011, he added that he respects Putin’s intelligence.
Clinton’s campaign announced on Friday that an additional 15 retired USA generals and admirals were endorsing her, bringing the total number of endorsements by retired military leaders to 110. “Far more than our president has been a leader”.
A spokesman for Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Friday that North Korea’s nuclear test was an example of the “catastrophic failures” of his Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“It’s a war we shouldn’t have been in, number one”, Trump said in the interview.
Clinton was scheduled on Friday to meet with former senior national security officials in NY.
Speaking in Laos about Trump’s unsuitability for office, Obama observed that over the course of the election season “people start thinking behaviour that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalised”. Asked by King if he agreed with Putin’s assessment, Trump declined to pass judgment.
“I don’t know”, he said.
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“I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Putin”.
